Different Strokes: Pádraig Harrington turns focus to Champions Tour after victory

Pádraig Harrington has taken to the PGA Champions Tour like a knife through butter and his dominant performances continued as he won the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on Sunday.

In 11 events on the PGA Tour Champions this season has two wins, four seconds, one third-place finish, with one of his wins a Major – the Senior US Open. That has earned him a cool $2,022,703 on Tour this year, second only to Steve Alker on the Charles Schwab Cup Money List.

Harrington has worked extensively on his speed for distance as he has got older and is now driving the ball farther than he ever has at almost 51 years of age. Never particularly known as a bomber in his heyday, Harrington tops the driving distance stat on the Champions Tour with an impressive 308.7 yard average, more than six yards ahead of the next longest driver on tour, Vijay Singh.

The Dubliner’s success has led to a change of schedule for the remainder of the year.

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“I had intended to go home after this trip, play a [DP World Tour] schedule through September,” Harrington said. “But I think I’ll come back now and play at least a couple of those events in September.

“I’m a bit behind and Steve is obviously playing very well and some of the other guys are playing great. But the more events I get in, I’ve got to make it up with numbers.”

An extra motivation for Harrington is the Charles Schwab Cup winner at the end of the season will earn a $1million bonus and the top five finishers will receive bonus payouts.

Harrington’s victory in New York was particularly special as his family was there to celebrate with him, his wife Caroline and sons Patrick and Ciarán.

By the numbers: 23

Twenty-three of the PGA Tour’s top golfers, including Shane Lowry and Rory McIlroy, were in attendance this week for a players’ meeting with commissioner Jay Monahan to discuss future plans for the Tour, according to golf podcast No Laying Up. The proposed plan amid the threat from LIV Golf would involve limiting fields and elevating purses at up to 15 events on the PGA Tour, creating a series of events around which the game’s top players have all committed to build their schedules.

Rory calls time on remote control golf ball

On Saturday at the BMW Championship at Wilmington Country Club, Rory McIlroy had a bizarre incident on the 15th green when a remote-controlled golf ball from a fan landed in front of him. With the rogue ball rolling towards him, the Northern Irishman hit the ball away with his putter a few times before losing his patience and picking the remote-controlled ball up and tossing it into the middle of a nearby lake.

A raucous crowd cheered Rory’s reaction to this unusual scene as the visor-wearing prankster was taken away by security.

“He kept yelling at Rory, ‘This is my dream, this is my dream,’” McIlroy’s playing partner Scott Stallings said. “I don’t know exactly what he was dreaming about, but his ball is gone.”

McIlroy missed his follow-up putt as he shot a round of 70 on Saturday. He finished tied eighth in the tournament, which will give him a six-shot deficit behind FedEx Cup leader Scottie Scheffler at the Tour Championship.

Quote

“If you told me I’d make the Tour Championship as a rookie, I’d laugh in your face”

Satith Theegala after making the season-ending Tour Championship in his debut season, and with it qualification for all the Majors next season. Theegala has had an admirable first season on the PGA Tour, narrowly missing out on victories at the Travelers Championship and the Waste Management Phoenix Open

On this day in 2003 . . .

Darren Clarke surged into the lead in the WGC-NEC Invitiational at Firestone GC with a four-under-par 66 on a rare day where the Northern Irishman’s ball-striking let him down but he was saved by his short game. The Northern Irishman hit just six fairways in Ohio but had only 25 putts. A day later Clarke saw out the win for his second World Golf Championship event and more than $1 million prize money.

Clarke became only the second player to win multiple WGC titles, following his victory at the WGC Matchplay in 2000. Work with Bob Rotella was credited for helping Clarke’s temperament for the win against the world’s best players.

“It’s great to see progress not only in my swing, my short game, but from the mental side. It’s great to see everything culminate and end up with a win again,” said Clarke.

“To win another world golf championship event means a lot to me. We have the Majors and then TPC Sawgrass. After that, I think the majority of guys would pick world golf championships next in line.”

Twitter talk

“Played so bad on the front 9 I got Jesus on the bag for the back.”

Shane Lowry tweets a video from the PGA Tour of caddie Bo Martin walking the fairways of Wilmington Country Club in sandals after the golfer bought Jordan sneakers for Martin but he got blisters

“Excited and honored to be the cover athlete for #PGATOUR2K23! More to come on 8/22 from @PGATOUR2K! #MoreGolfMoreGame”

Tiger Woods tweets being the cover star of the upcoming golf video game PGA Tour 2K23. It is Tiger Woods’s first involvement with a video game after he broke with EA Sports and the successful Tiger Woods PGA Tour series in 2013

“Excited to finally make it to East Lake for the Tour Championship! Been a big goal of mine and after getting close last year it’s been one of the main reasons I’ve worked my tail off all year. Thanks to the BMW for a great event. Ready to make a run in Atlanta!”

Max Homa delighted to make the final of the Fed-Ex Cup

In the bag: Patrick Cantlay

BMW Championship

Driver: Titleist TS3

Fairway woods: Titleist 915F, Titleist TS2

Irons: Titleist 718 AP2

Wedges: Titleist Vokey SM7, Titleist Vokey SM9, Titleist Vokey SM8

Putter: Scotty Cameron T5 Prototype

Ball: Titleist Pro V1X

Know the rules:

Q: Player A’s tee shot might be lost so they play provisional ball that is holed. Player A does not wish to look for the original ball, but Player B find Player A’s original ball before Player A lifts provisional ball from the hole. What is the ruling?

A: Player A must abandon the holed provisional ball and continue with the original ball. The score only becomes the player’s score when the players lifts the ball from the hole before the original ball has been found in bounds.